Good and Bad Domains

Are there such things as good or bad domains?

No not really. ISNIC's staff does assist customers (if asked) with registration of .is-domains, but not in coming up with an idea for a good domain. When creating a good domain it comes down to language skills, the feel for words and above all, Creativity. 

The .is top level domain ending goes very well with many words, and can, as such facilitate the construction of good and easy to remember domains.

For a long time short domains were thought to be much better than longer ones. This could, however, be wrong in some cases. Some specialists contend that well formulated and descriptive domains score higher in search engines on the internet.

Here are a few helpful things to keep in mind when registering a good .is domain:

1. Short one-word domains are generally better than long ones. The shorter the domain is, the easier is to remember an email address.
2. Easy-to-read domains are gererally better than abbreviations and short words are (of course) easier to spell, and to remember, than very long words. Hint: Use a good english dictionary and think of using an old latin word if the modern english word is already taken. You can even use a full length domain for a website and a shorter one for an email address.
3. Domains, consisting only of english letters are generally better than domains containing special letters, numbers or hyphens. Numeric domains (usually very short ones)  can also be good. Numeric domains are for some reason very popular in some countries (e.g. China) and for special websites like telephone books, sport sites and more.
4. IDN domains (which result in correctly spelled icelandic words) can be difficult, but are absolutely necessary as secondary domains (with its web forwarded to the primary domains website) and should be used marketing a product or service containg that name on advertising websites, in newspapers, on signs, on cars, on posters, on football shirts, flags etc. IDN domains can cause technical problems when used in email addresses.
5. Reselling domains. Domain merchants are those who register domains in the sole purpose of reselling them. This kind of service is about getting a good domain idea, building up a concept and finding a potential buyer, e.g. to use it for marketing on the internet. Domain merchants can be just as important for the domain market as speculators are for any other markets. The golden rule is to register a domain in good faith, and not to infringe better rights of others. See .is registration rule nr. 40.
6. The best domains are of course those that everyone uses all the time. One of them broke most of the "rules" above. The domain google.is was not descriptive for its service, not particularly short or obvious when it was registered in May 2002. All things considered, it is the service and the product quality that matters.